Textile jacket for household utensils and other articles



March 24, 1936. HINCHUFF 2,035,384

TEXTILE JACKET FOR HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS AND OTHER ARTICLES Filed Nov. 13, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Q TEXTILE JACKET FOR HOUSEHOLD UTEN- SILS AND OTHER ARTICLES Ralph Hinchlifi', Rockford, 111., assignor, by m'esne assignments, to Coverknit Inc., a corporation of Delaware Application November13, 1934, Serial ml'zsas'u 12 Claims. (ciao-11o) The object of this invention is to provide useful and decorative jackets for a widely diversified array of articles commonly used in and found about the home, etc.

The present invention as one specific illustration thereof contemplates the provision of jackets for table and buiiet glassware, fine china, etc., including highball, cocktail and other beverage glasses, bottles, decanters, mixers, shakers, and other containers, flower vases, bowls and candlesticks, or cups, saucers, plates, etc., of dinner and tea sets.

In the case of the table and buffet glassware, beverage mixers, shakers and containers, especially those used with iced beverages, a certain amount of condensation collects on the exterior of the article which chills and moistens the hands of the user of the article.

The utility of a jacket for such an article resides in the prevention of the chilling and moistening of the hand. or at least reducing the chilling to a minimum and in preventing the condensation on the exterior of the article from trickling down the sides thereof and collecting on the bottom where when the highball glass, for example, is set upon the highly polished surface of a table it would mar the finish thereof.

In this respect the jacket supplants the usual loose coaster normally provided for receiving the glass bottle, etc. to prevent the condensation .from coming in contact with the finished surface of the table. buffet, etc.

The jacket also will function as a silencer and serves to keep the contents of the article cold or hot as the case may be by reducting radiation from the side walls of the article.

The utility of the jackets when applied to chinaware or delicate glassware resides in the functioning of the jackets as a means for preventing chipping of the edges of the cups, suckers, or plates when stacked in a closet or when being packed for shipping and in the case of fancy plates when such plates are stood on edge for display purposes.

In other instances the invention is applicable to other articles found in a household, such for example as for shaker cans containing cleansing powder such as one would prefer to keep in a handy place in the bathroom, but which due to the character of the container itself the color of its wrapper does not harmonize with the general color scheme of the room.

The jacket made in accordance with the principles of the present invention in such instances is colored and/or decorated in accordance with the general color scheme of the surroundings.

A jacket made according to the principles of the present invention is applicable to kitchen utensils, for example a rolling'pin, wherein its utility resides in retaining a certain amount of fiour between the polished or smooth surface of the rolling pin and the batch of dough being rolled thereby to prevent sticking of the dough to the rolling pin.

In other instances, the invention is applicable to medicine or perfume bottles which one would prefer to have handy in a place normally exposed to View.

From the above, it will be obvious that the inl5 vention is adaptable for many uses, and its utility varies with its use.

Another object of the invention is to decorate the jackets in a suitable manner in addition to making them of a color which will harmonize 2 with other surroundings, such decorating to be done by printing, painting, or lithographing in some instances or by weaving, embroidery, plating or reverse plating in other instances. The material of which the jacket is composed is pref- 2g erably of a textile nature, that is a woven, knitted, or crocheted fabric.

In the preferred form of the invention the jacket is made of a knitted fabric. Obviously, the knitted fabric may be composed of plain, ribbed, tucked, or other fancy stitch formation.

In the present form of the invention the fabric isof a seamless circular knit rib type, such as may be readily produced on the knitting machine shown and described in U. S. Letters Patent to Walter Iarkin No. 1,841,249, dated January 12, 1932, the fabric per se being of the general character disclosed in the companion patent of Walter Larkin, No. 1,772,400, dated August 5, 1930, wherein the ribbed fabric is provided with any desired form of design including horizontal stripes produced by yarn changing and/or vertical stripes produced by plating or designs composed partly of one and partly of the other, as fully set forth in said patents. The article may also include openwork designs composed wholly or in part by the formation of eyelets at predetermined places and in predetermined relation to each other throughout the jacket in accordance with later developments of the multidesign 5 machine disclosed in the first of the above-men- 'tioned Larkin patents.

The accompanying drawing illustrates some of the many uses to which the device may be put,

wherein:

Fig. 1 illustrates the invention as applied to a. water tumbler or similar article of glassware;

Fig. 2 illustrates the device as applied to the base of a cocktail glass or sherbet;

Fig. 3 illustrates the device as applied to a square or other rectangular bottle or container, such as a. medicine or perfume bottle;

Fig. 4 illustrates the device as applied to a beverage bottle or its like;

Fig. 5 illustrates the device made in accordance with the principles of the present invention as applied to the edge of a plate or saucer;

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5 showing the device as covering the under surface of the article as well as the peripheral edge thereof;

Fig. '7 illustrates the device as applied to a cup for packing or stacking purposes;

Fig. 8 discloses the device as applied to a shaker can for cleansing powder, etc.;

Fig. 9 discloses the device as applied to a. rollin pin;

Fig. 10 is a diagrammatic vertical sectional elevation, detached, of the device applied in Fig. 1, for example, showing the center of the bottom of the article as being open;

Fig. 11 is a view similar to Fig. 10, showing the article with a closed bottom;

Fig. 12 is a view similar to Fig. 10 showing the device as having an elastic upper edge;

Fig. 13 is a view similar to Fig. 10 showing the device as having an elastic lower edge;

Fig. 14 is a view similar to Figs. 12 and 13, with additional elastic bands intermediate the upper and lower edges of the article;

Fig. 15 is a sectional view of the device as applied in Fig. 2, showing the bottom of the article as being open;

Fig. 16 is a view similar to Fig. 15 showing the bottom of the article as being of a closed nature;

Fig. 17 is a detached longitudinal sectional view of the device illustrated in Fig. 9, as applied to a rolling pin;

Fig. 18 is a further modification of the device insofar as the manner of applying the elastic to the ends of the article is concerned.

As shown in Figs. 1, 10, ll, 12, 13, and 14, the jacket I is preferably composed of a relatively short section of a circular knit 'plain or ribbed tube which may be provided with any suitable decorative edge 2, one form of which may be produced by the welting mechanism disclosed in the first of the above-mentioned Larkin patents.

The side wall 3 of the jacket I may be suitably decorated with horizontal stripes 4 produced by, for example, a change of yarn as disclosed in said patent. Decoration may also include full length or partial length vertical stripes 5 produced by plating, for example, as disclosed in the above-mentioned Larkin patent.

These vertical stripes of various lengths may be arranged either alone or in combination with the horizontal stripes 4 over, any and all parts of the body I of the article to produce any desired form of decoration thereon. Obviously, instead of providing the designs by yarn change and/or plating the designs may be embroidered, printed, or otherwise applied.

In the form of the jacket illustrated in Figs. 1

and 10, the device is normally of a. substantially cylindrical form open at the upper edge 2 as illustrated and also being open at the lower edge I.

' Due to the inherent elasticity of knitted fabric, particularly ribbed knit fabric, the short cylindrical section of tubing when forced on to an article, such as a tumbler, A, will expand radially and the inherent elasticity of the fabric will cause the wall 3 to adhere closely to the surface of the glass or other article to which the device is applied,

In applying the device, it is not longitudinally drawn on the tumbler, for example, until the lower edge I of the tube rides out on to the side wall of the glass but instead thereof the edge 1 is permitted to remain under the bottom of the glass in the form of an inturned circumventing flange 8 which leaves a central opening 9 in the bottom of the article I.

In that form of the device shown in Fig. 11, the bottom I0 of the article is completely closed which may be accomplished in any suitable manner, either by cutting and fitting a bottom into the lower edge 1 of the tube to which the bottom I0 may be stitched, looped, or otherwise secured, or by puckering the edge '1 and securing the edge firmly together at the center of the article.

In that form of the device illustrated in Fig. 12, the upper portion I3 of the side wall 3a at and/or be provided with elastic in the form of a rubber thread covered or uncovered as desired either knit into the courses of stitches of which the upper portion of the side wall is composed or the elastic may be applied in the form of a cord inlaid in the courses of stitches in the usual and well known manner, or as shown, for example, in Fig. 18, the article may be provided with a hem 20 at one or other ends thereof and in which is disposed an ordinary rubber band 200.. In any event the upper edge of the article is provided with elastic in addition to the inherent elasticity of the fabric itself in order to make the upper edge grip the side wall of the article to which the jacket is applied as firmly as possible to pre- .vent the slipping of the jacket on the encased article.

In a like manner, as illustrated in Fig. 13, the lower edge 1a of the tube of which the jacket is composed may also be provided with an elastic edge or area adjacent said edge as illustrated at [3a in Fig. 13.

Such elastic in the lower edge of the jacket tube will cause the jacket to fit snugly under the bottom or around the end of the article to which the jacket is applied.

Fig. 14 illustrates a jacket Ic provided with the elastic area I3a at both the upper edge 2a of the article and the lower edge la, and in addition thereto the jacket intermediate the upper and lower ends 2a and 1a respectively is provided with horizontal vertically spaced bands or areas B0 of an elastic nature formed in any one of the manners above noted.

The jacket indicated at 2| in Figs. 2 and 15 is composed of, for example, a short length of tubing in the same manner as the jacket I illustrated in the figures previously referred to, the opposite ends 22, 22 of the tube section being provided with elastic bands or courses 23 which contract the tube and cause the jacket 2i to fit snugly around the base B of a sherbet or cocktail glass B. In this instance, the jacket functions as a silencer and as a coaster for the glass.

The device shown in Fig. 16 is the same as that shown in Fig. 15, with the exception that the bottom 24 is completely closed in a manner similar to that disclosed in reference to the closing of the bottom Hl of the article shown in Fig. 11.

The jackets 25 and 26 shown in Figs. 3 and 4 are constructed in substantially the same manner and function in substantially the same manner as the jacket referred to in connection with Fig. 1 of the drawing, the jacket shown in Fig. 3 being readily adaptable to a bottle or other article having a number of fiat angularly disposed sides either with an open or a closed bottom as desired, and the area at and/or adjacent the upper edge 21 of the jacket being provided with the additional elastic or courses or strands in the manner above disclosed.

The jacket 26 illustrated in Fig. 4 is of the samegeneral construction and difiers only as to its length, depending upon the heighth of the bottle or other cylindrical article to which the jacket may be applied.

The jackets 28 and 29 shown in Figs. 8 and 9 respectively are of a similar construction shown clearly in Fig. 1'7, and difier only as to the proportions which vary in accordance with the use to which the article is to be put. For example, the jacket 28 shown in Fig.8 is applied to a shaker container E, such as those in which cleansing powders are normally sold while the jacket 29 shown in Fig. 9 is applied to a rolling pin F. In either case, the jackets are similar to the diagrammatic illustration of Fig. 17 01' that shown in Fig. 18, wherein the jacket is composed of a section of tubular circular knit fabric of desired length, as illustrated at 30, and provided at its opposite ends 3|, 3| with elastic areas 32 and provided with inturned flanges 33 at the opposite ends of the article which snap or otherwise hug closely around the opposite ends of the article to which the jacket is applied.

The jacket of Fig. 5 is of a similar construction to that shown in Figs. 2 and 15, varying therefrom only as to proportions, the jacket in this case taking the form of a ring 35 applied to the peripheral edge of a saucer or plate G. In this case, the ring 35 would be composed of a relatively short section of a tube of relatively large diameter, the opposite ends of the tube section being provided with the elastic inlays, courses, or hems as above described, whereby in stretching the ring 35 around the edge of the plate the opposite ends of the tubular section of fabric will cling closely to the opposite faces of the plate or saucer adjacent the peripheral edge encased by the ring.

The jacket shown in Fig. 6 consists of a body 36, which may cover one entire surface of the plate or saucer and having an inturned flange 31 preferably of the elastic construction above noted, which will snap over the peripheral edge of the plate or saucer G and hold the cover in place, whereby the plates or saucers maybe stacked without injury.

The jacket shown in Fig. 7 is of substantially the same character and is shown as being applied to a cup H, the body 36 of the jacket having a slot 38 formed in one side thereof, through which the handle of the cup may project.

From the above, it will be clear that jackets of the type forming the subject matter of the present invention have a wide and diversified field of use in accordance with which the function of the jacket will vary to meet conditions.

I claim:

1. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is composed of knitted fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with complementary elastic means augmenting the inherent elasticity of the knitted jacket to increase its adherence to the article and to cause the jacket to embrace at least one end of the article to which the jacket is applied.

2. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is composed of knitted fibrous textile material in the form of a tube and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with complementary elastic means adjacent at least one end of the tube and augmenting the inherent elasticity of the knitted jacket to increase its adherence to the article at said end and to cause at least one -end of the tube to fold over and embrace at least one end of the article to which the jacket is applied.

3. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is formed of knitted fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with at least one rubber strand directly incorporated in the fabric for causing the jacket to adhere to the article and to embrace at least one end of the article. g

4. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other con- 1 tainers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is formed of a section of a circularly knitted tube of fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is ap- 1 plied, said jacket being provided with at least one rubber strand directly incorporated in the fabric for causing the jacket to adhere to the article and to embrace at least one end of the article.

5. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is formed of a section of a circularly knitted tube of fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with a strand of rubber directly incorporated in the fabric adjacent an open end of the tube section for eaus-, ing the jacket to adhere to the article and-to embrace one end of the article.

6. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is formed of a section of a circularly knitted tube of fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with a strand of rubber directly incorporated in the fabric adjacent each of the opposite open ends of the tube section ,for causing the jacket to adhere ,to the article and one end of the tube to fold over and embrace one end of the article.

7. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is formed of a section of a circularly knitted tube of fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with a strand of rubber directly incorporated in the fabric adjacent each of the opposite open ends of the tube tainers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is formed of knitted fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with a rubber strand knitted into predetermined courses of stitches of the fabric for causing the jacket to adhere to the article and embrace at least one end thereof.

9. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials, wherein the jacket is formed of a section of circular knit ribbed fabric composed of fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with a rubber stranddirectly incorporated in the fabric for causing the jacket to adhere to the article and embrace at least one end thereof.

10. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is formed of a section of circular knit fabric composed of fibrous textile material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the-jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with a rubber strand directly incorporated in the fabric adjacent one end of said section and causing said end to turn inwardly about at least one end of the article in the form of a flange on the 'wherein the jacket is formed of a section of circular knit fabric composed of fibrous textile material andof such dimensions as to require lateral stretchingof the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with a rubber strand directly incorporated in the fabric adjacent one end of said section and causing said end to turn inwardly about the adjacent end of the article in the form of a flange on the jacket, and a rubber strand directly incorporated in the fabric in spaced relation to the first strand longitudinally of the section causing that portion of the section adjacent the second said strand to adhere closely to the article.

12. A jacket for household and similar articles and particularly drinking glasses and other containers for liquid and powdered materials wherein the jacket is formed of a section of a circular knit fabric composed of fibrous material and of such dimensions as to require lateral stretching of the jacket over the article to which it is applied, said jacket being provided with rubber strands directly incorporated in the fabric adjacent opposite ends respectively of the section and causing said ends to bend around the opposite ends of and to at least some extent inwardly beyond the periphery of the portion of the article enclosed by that portion of the section lying intermediate said relatively spaced strands.

RALPH HINCHLIFF. 

